“The site was never completely finished nor cleaned and in my opinion should never have been given an occupancy certificate,” said the former owner, who moved out in October after six years.
The building has sparked its own public website, brittanyapartment.com that describes similar issues including a major lift outage and “various leakage reports”.
In another much larger and more recently completed Merhis development, Aya Eliza on Auburn Road, Auburn, with 229 apartments, an owner said they were concerned that common areas would not be finished if the developer collapsed.
“We have recently settled the property. However, we found most of the common areas still haven’t been finished (e.g. only one lift is working and the second hasn’t been installed). [There’s] still lots of construction materials in the car park.”
A photograph supplied of Aya Eliza shows the project’s funding partner was prominent Melbourne-based real estate finance house Wingate.
“We have provided funding to Merhis, but none of the entities referenced in recent media reports [Merhis Constructions/Argyle Builders and Sidway Constructions] have been involved in any Wingate facility,” Wingate’s managing director of property, Ryan Levin, said.
The Australian Financial Review contacted the Merhis Group offices but the phone rang unanswered. An emailed request for comment had not generated a reply by the time of publication.
In December, the Financial Review revealed that two Merhis Group companies, Argyle Builders (previously called Merhis Constructions) and Sidway Constructions are the subject of wind-up applications by the Deputy Tax Commissioner in the Federal Court on the grounds of insolvency. The cases will be heard on January 16 and January 23 respectively. Both companies were placed in administration in December.
A wind-up application made by the ATO on November 19 against Merhis Constructions notes the company had tax debts of $151,234 as of September last year relating to Business Activity Statements, which generally include GST provisions and PAYG withholding provisions among others.
Liquidators of another failed Merhis company, Southern Cross Rigging and Constructions (which collapsed in 2016 owing creditors $5.5 million and the ATO $4.2 million) identified “approximately 151 companies” related to Merhis Group and tax debts of almost $21 million.
Merhis Group is a family-run business led by Nasser Khalil Merhi and Mark Merhi.
It has six apartment projects under way in Liverpool, Auburn, Blacktown, Parramatta and Bankstown and is offering interest-free vendor financing through a company called Merhis Connect.
from A Viral Update http://bit.ly/2TAtTHd
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